 |
 |
| Over two hours later and low on patience, I noticed something. Something seemed all wrong. When I was a kid, batteries only conducted electricity when paired with a metal contact plate. This mp3 player had no such thing. "Could it be some new semi-conductive plastic?", I thought. I finally concluded that Occam's Razor was again true in this case. Simply put, the piece of crap just didn't work. It was broken. So began the journey to replace the malfunctioning contraption. Without even a gift receipt, I stuffed the player back into the box and headed out to what we will call Bry's Electronics. (The real name has been changed to avoid lawsuits). They advertised that "your best buys are always at Bry's". The customer service line seemed more like the line for Disney's Splash Mountain on July 4th. It coiled throughout the store, trailed outside under the awning, and into the parking lot. DisneyLand at least has the fastpass concept, and before that they had the ticketbook concept. No such luck at Bry's; it was first come, first served. And if you're not first, then there's no telling when or if you're ever helped. Thank goodness I don't have young children, because waiting in that line would have caused me to miss their first word, first day of school, and college graduation. I must have talked to five different people, each one saying that they were the "manager". The negotiations continued until they decided that it would be appropriate to give me store credit. When I told them that the current unit was defective, they nodded and re-shrinkwrapped the box and put it back on the retail shelf. (I'M NOT KIDDING. THEY ACTUALLY PUT IT BACK) I think you know where I'm going with all of this, and it's not pretty. My efforts at Bry's have labored to produce yet another malfunctioning mp3 unit. It's a vicious cycle of defective products, and a defective retail system. I'll have to stick with my 8-track player. |
| Retail woes continue |
| Holiday shopping is nothing compared to holiday returning |
| January 5-- Now that the stress of Christmas shopping has subsided for another 360-and-some days, we're faced with yet another shopping mall challenge: Returns. My Christmas shopping for 2002 was fairly painless. I started and finished with several hours to spare before the clock ticked to December 25th. The "victory" over the retail challenges was shortlived, however. Thanks to poor quality electronic workmanship, the mp3 player I received from my brother-in-law didn't even produce a beep's worth of sound. Mistakenly thinking that I was quite handy in the world of gadgets, I took up the opportunity to find out what was wrong. |